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Pakistan Says It's Keeping Afghan Patrols at Full Strength

Despite India'a military buildup, Pakistan has not reduced the number of troops hunting for Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders along the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani military officers said today.

But in the event of any attack by India, the officers said, most of the 61,600 troops now devoted to sealing the Afghan border, scouring nearby mountains and protecting American troops based in Pakistan would have to be shifted to national defense.

Today's disclosure of deployments, in a briefing for The New York Times, appeared to be intended to encourage the United States and its allies to press India to step back from the brink of war.

''Pakistan has not yet moved even a single soldier who is committed to duty alongside the Americans,'' said a Pakistani military intelligence officer, disputing media reports that the search for Osama bin Laden and other fugitives had been crippled as the country mobilizes against India.

India has massed hundreds of thousands of troops near Pakistan, threatening war if Islamabad does not act to crush militant Islamic groups that use terror tactics against Indian rule in Kashmir.

Pakistan has mustered large forces in response. But it has also detained hundreds of its citizens since Dec. 13, when a suicide attack on the Indian Parliament touched off the current crisis, and it has called on India to engage in dialogue.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has started a crackdown on militant Islamic groups and promised to spell out soon his strategy for curbing extremism.

American officials say they believe General Musharraf is serious in his drive against terrorism, though the cause of Kashmir ''liberation'' remains a intensely volatile political issue here. In recent days, in addition to encouraging General Musharraf to take even stronger measures, the United States and Britain have urged India to back off and start talking.

''We're telling both sides that this is madness, let's de-escalate,'' a Western diplomat here said today.

The diplomat agreed that the border chase for fugitives has not been impaired by troop shifts, at least so far. While Pakistan has withdrawn some soldiers from the zone near Afghanistan, he said, ''there are still lots of Pakistani troops up there.''

''Enough troops remain to do the job,'' the diplomat said. ''That's what our people in the area think.''

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Some Pakistani reserve forces from near Afghanistan have been moved to the Indian front, the Pakistani officers acknowledged. Other troops have been sighted moving eastward from the numerous bases in northwestern Pakistan, but these were not necessarily involved in the border search, officials here said.

The Indian government has detected the eastward movement of antiaircraft batteries from near the Afghan border, an Indian official said today. But India, too, believes Pakistan has not yet shifted enough forces to undercut the search for Afghan outlaws, he said.

As evidence of the effectiveness of their watch, the Pakistani officers said that of the 300 Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners being held by American forces at their base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 240 had been captured by Pakistan's forces as they tried to cross the border.

Of the 61,600 Pakistanis stationed on or near the Afghan border, 4,000 are regular army troops and 31,000 are frontier corpsmen, mainly from tribes in the northwest mountains, who know the local terrain and speak the local languages. Their main task is to guard the border.

Another 19,000 men, including 15,000 regular army troops and 4,000 frontier corpsmen, are in Afghanistan, searching mountain trails, caves and ravines for fugitives. These troops are accompanied by unspecified numbers of American Special Forces troops.

Pakistan has posted 600 ''rapid reaction forces'' in the region to respond to emergencies or opportunities. Finally, the officers said, 7,000 Pakistani soldiers are protecting the air bases the United States has established to support its Afghan operations.

If fighting with India does break out, the Pakistani officers said, most of the corpsmen and other troops near the Afghan border would have to be moved to the east, mainly to guard bridges and other installations.

Detailing India's large deployments of infantry, armor, jets and missiles along the 1,800-mile border between their countries, the military officers said Pakistan was outnumbered in conventional forces. They said two more Indian divisions were still on their way from distant West Bengal.

The officers said India had deployed 600 aircraft in 10 bases near Pakistan and had placed 100 of its Prithvi-1 missiles in six locations -- three in Kashmir, two in Punjab and one in Rajasthan. The missiles are in striking range of all of Pakistan's cities, they said.

India has not disclosed its deployments.

The officers would not provide details of Pakistan's air forces, which are smaller than India's, nor of its missile forces, which may be Pakistan's trump. Some military experts say Pakistan's missile forces are superior to India's, and could serve as an important deterrent.

Both India and Pakistan have tested nuclear weapons and may have aircraft or missiles able to deliver them. But neither side has uttered nuclear threats in the current confrontation, and officials from both sides say they do not believe the face-off could lead to nuclear war.